Artificial intelligence reads the library that the volcano buried
Researchers from the São Carlos Physics Institute (IFSC) at the University of São Paulo (USP) were in second place and won $50,000 in the competition'Vesuvius Challenge 2023'which aimed at that Identify the writings on a papyrus that was charred and buried during a volcanic eruption in Italy in 79 AD
Since documents cannot be opened for reading due to the risk of their deterioration, Brazilian researchers They were provided with artificial intelligence. (see below how the work went).
1 of 4 USP researchers take 2nd place in a competition to decipher charred papyrus during the Vesuvius eruption Photo: Disclosure USP researchers take 2nd place in a competition to decipher charred papyrus during the Vesuvius eruption Photo: Disclosure
How was the researchers' work?
Papyri were leaves of a plant. The documents, located in a library in the city of Herculaneum in Italy, were charred almost two thousand years ago, after the eruption of the volcano Vesuvius.
The material was found in the 18th century and since then various methods have been used to open the papyrus scrolls, but without success The burned material is very fragile.
Neural networks, machine learning and computer vision were used to support the work. The process was as follows:
1️⃣ First The competition organization scanned four papyri using Xray computed tomography. The computer program also unrolled the documents in three dimensions, making it possible to open the papyri.
2 of 4 The IFSC researcher at the USP São Carlos Leonardo Scabini — Photo: Rodrigo Sargaço/EPTV The IFSC researcher at the USP São Carlos Leonardo Scabini — Photo: Rodrigo Sargaço/EPTV
2️⃣ The competition participants then used this Artificial intelligence for Identify ink in manuscripts. The problem is that this ink was made from charcoal and at first it was difficult to tell the difference between the charred papyrus and the written text. Only with the numerical codes was it possible to identify the regions with and without color.
“In order not to physically roll it out and destroy it because it has turned into a piece of coal, this Xray tomography is done and we do a 3D reconstruction on the computer. But even after that, the papyrus is still rolled up, “We are practically unrolling it. Still, it is very difficult to see ink, to see any sign of writing. And this is where artificial intelligence comes into play to recognize signs where there might be ink,” explained IFSC researcher Leonardo Scabini.
“Then we mark those colors and show them to the artificial intelligence and say, 'Look, this is color, find more for us'. And that training is completed and then we have ink recognitions in very small pieces of papyrus and together they form letters, words and the entire text itself,” Scabini explained.
3️⃣ O Material was sent to experts, who deciphered the contents of the papyri. So far, scientists from São Carlos, together with other international researchers, have succeededIt is only 5% material and there is still a lot of work to do.
“We already have data from four more parchments, so the challenge is to read at least 90% by the end of this year. Our team will continue to try to improve our artificial intelligence for this,” emphasized the researcher.
“To be the only Brazilian team in the middle of it all and, above all, to be recognized.” We are proud to demonstrate the capabilities of Brazilian science, which is very competitive internationally despite the different investment resources. “This is definitely very inspiring,” emphasized Scabini.
What does the papyrus of a Greek philosopher say?
3 of 4 USP researchers used artificial intelligence to identify the writings on a charred and buried papyrus Photo: Reproduction/EPTV Artificial intelligence was used by USP researchers to identify the writings on a charred and buried papyrus Photo: Reproduction/ EPTV
The papyrus text was written in Greek and is about the joys of music and food and has an Epicurean philosophical content, which preaches the pursuit of moderate pleasures to achieve a state of calm and absence of fear.
The Greek Epicurus lived between 341 and 271 BC. Researchers believe that the text was written by the Greek philosopher Philodemus, who lived between 110 BC. and 35 B.C. lived
The documents are known as “Herculaneum papyri“, name of the city where they were found.
Competition winning team
4 of 4 papyri decoded by research teams from around the world Photo: Vesuvius Challenge 2023/Disclosure Papyri decoded by research teams from around the world Photo: Vesuvius Challenge 2023/Disclosure
The “Vesuvius Challenge” or “Vesuvius Challenge” was launched in March 2023 to bring together researchers from around the world to read the “Herculaneum” scrolls.
Only Four teams around the world have developed methods to decipher the writings on the papyrus. The competition commission assessed the readability of the sentences.
The grand prize went to the team that managed to read a full sentence, “unroll the scrolls,” and identify all the letters on the parchment.
The team consists of an Egyptian, a doctoral student at the Free University in Germany, an intern from the company Space of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland, shared the $700,000 prize.
Two other teams shared second place, as did the team from São Carlos.